Kolkata: Darjeeling Tea Association (DTA) has sought intervention of chief minister Mamata Banerjee for resumption of gas supply to tea estates.Incidentally, the production of first flush tea has just started and the tea factories require gas for processing of tea. The principal advisor to DTA, Sandeep Mukherjee, has written that the Darjeeling tea industry, which is dependent on industrial LPG, is not in the list of priority sectors where commercial gas can be allotted now. He pointed out that the tea estate factories are experiencing acute shortage of LPG in Darjeeling, which is severely impacting the tea industry and may lead to cessation of tea garden operations, which engage 55,000 workers.“The Darjeeling tea industry, after a prolonged three-month gap, has just started producing its first flush, which is exported and is of premium quality and generates revenue. If the shortage is not mitigated urgently, it would be catastrophic for the industry. In view of this, the Darjeeling Tea industry seeks your immediate intervention on the subject since shutting down of tea estates may lead to unrest among workers, while without LPG supply it would not be financially viable,” he wrote to the CM.In another letter to deputy chairman of Tea Board, Mukherjee said that earlier coal was used as fuel, but later, following export restrictions, industrial LPG was introduced.
